A marriage counselor noted that couples who have occasional violent ar

Question

A marriage counselor noted that couples who have occasional violent arguments are less likely to divorce within the next six months than those who have frequent but less violent arguments. He concluded that frequent arguing is a major factor in the causation of severe marital disharmony.

The counselors conclusion is most weakened by which of the following observations?

A. Couples who have already come to the point of divorce argue continuously over small matters. 
B. People who have recently divorced are more likely to argue violently when they meet. 
C. Many people in happy marriages have occasional violent arguments. 
D. Recently divorced people rarely cite frequent arguments as a cause of marital disharmony 
E. A significant fraction of couples close to divorce do not talk to each other.

Source:   Www.Majortests.Com   
Difficulty Level:   700

sayantanc2k · Accepted Answer

Option A is typical GMAT-type answer. The logic structure is as follows:

X and Y are observed to happen together.
Conclusion: X causes Y

Weakening statement: Y causes X.

Here X: Frequent argument.
Y: Divorce.

The conclusion here is that frequent argument causes divorce. (X causes Y)
Option A indicates that people who already have come to the verge of getting divorce argue frequently. (Y causes X)

Once you recognize the pattern, you would be able to click on the correct option quickly and move on to the next question ( even without considering the other options). D could be the second best option - but in presence of A, D does not stand a chance.

deepthit · Answer

This is a cause and effect problem.

Frequent fights are leading to divorce.

We have to prove that something else is causing the divorce or divorce is leading to the continuous fights.

Option A correctly addresses that Divorce cause frequent fights. Hence Weakening the cause and effect relationship stated.

Option A it is !!

sakshamgmat · Answer

How do we eliminate D here.
Recently divorced couples rarely cite arguing as a cause of marital disharmony so this means that their divorce resulted from some other reason.
Doesnt this weaken the argument ?

Also in the premise we are concerned with couples who are likely to divorce within next 6 months.
But option A discusses about couples who have already come to the point of divorce.
Isn't this contradictory ?

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation: Correct Answer: A The counselor suggests that frequent arguments are a cause of marital disharmony. One way to weaken that conclusion is to show that the disharmony came before the arguments (i.e. the disharmony caused the arguments). This is suggested in A which is the best answer. Option D talks about only recent divorced couple so, it can not be the best answer

Hope it Helps

Nightmare007 · Answer

This statement is a classic CR question type that concludes

Cause (Freq Arguments) ---> Effect ( Divorce)

Now to weaken the argument- 
Effect ---> Cause is enough .

A states the same thing- Divorce causes Frequent arguments.

Hence A is answer.

Sasindran · Answer

Can someone provide an explanation that refutes selecting E?

Posted from my mobile device

jps245 · Answer

Hello,

At first glance, E does appear to weaken the argument. However, even if we assumed that was true, it might be the case that couples frequently argued for a while, but then stopped talking when they were finally close to divorce (in which case, the frequent arguing would still be the cause, but when they were close to divorce, they weren't talking anymore)

This might be looking into it too much. As discussed above, once you look at the cause-effect relationship and realize that answer A reverses this dynamic, you can just choose A and move on (in weakening questions, even though other answers like E sound good and could potentially weaken the argument, if one answer reverses the relationship, it weakens the argument the most)

Sasindran · Answer

Thanks man. Good explanation.

Sent from my iPhone using  GMAT Club Forum mobile app

chesstitans · Answer

jps245 ,  Sasindran , majortest.com is an unreliable source, so it is better for test takers should practice high-quality questions that come from reliable sources, such as OG, Kaplan, Manhattan, and Powerscore.

Sasindran · Answer

chesstitans  Duly noted. Thanks for the concern though

HG0815 · Answer

IMO OA is A

Below is my reasoning.

A. Couples who have already come to the point of divorce argue continuously over small matters. 
 -> Keep
B. People who have recently divorced are more likely to argue violently when they meet. 
 -> 'Recently divorced' is out of scope.
 Scope of conclusion is about couples who do not divorced.
C. Many people in happy marriages have occasional violent arguments.
 -> Keep 
D. Recently divorced people rarely cite frequent arguments as a cause of marital disharmony 
 -> 'Recently divorced' is out of scope.
 Scope of conclusion is about couples who do not divorced.
E. A significant fraction of couples close to divorce do not talk to each other. 
 -> Because of 'do not talk to each other' ,E is incorrect.
 'Argument' is our scope of conclusion.
 This is out of scope.

Between A and C, I chose A.
Because A can give another reason to conclusion, but C cannot(Also, C looks like just one kind of happening to couples.)

VerbalBot · Answer

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A marriage counselor noted that couples who have occasional violent ar

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